BrowserPlus Bundled with Yahoo! Messenger 10

Despite having been launched more than a year ago, Yahoo!'s BrowserPlus add-on hasn't gained much traction. Still, the project has gradually evolved and has been eventually open-sourced and now, in an effort to extend its reach, Yahoo! is bundling it with Messenger 10 Beta and will also do so in the final version. While the tactic, though annoying, is widely used by Yahoo! and others, this may be the first time an “added extra” may be actually worth installing.

BrowserPlus is often compared with Google Gears, which is also released as a browser enhancement bringing support for advanced features that some browsers, say Internet Explorer, for example, may not have implemented and may even have no plans to, but that some users may want. However, Yahoo! tries to differentiate its offering by saying that its main purpose is to advance the web plug-in environment and to provide a framework for other developers to implement advanced functionality and better desktop integration for web services.

Currently, Yahoo! BrowserPlus brings some interesting features, like a much improved upload interface. Anyone who has tried to upload a larger number of photos or files has been faced with the hassle of uploading them one by one using the clunky standard interface most sites support. With BrowserPlus, users can upload multiple files at a time and also use drag and drop to add them to the queue. Another useful feature is a notification system for web apps allowing web email clients, instant messengers, calendars, etc., to use the operating system's native notification system.

The add-on supports most browsers like Firefox 2 and 3, Internet Explorer 6 or newer, Google Chrome and Safari on all recent versions of Windows (XP, Vista, 7) and Mac OS X. By bundling it with the latest version of Yahoo! Messenger, the company hopes that the add-on will gain a better traction, which, in turn, should make developers more interested in it.